Reeds for application in musical instruments particularly in electronic musical instruments



May 18, 1965 A. MICHEL 3,133,760

REEDS FOR APPLICATION IN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS PARTICULARLY IN ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Filed Nov. 7, 1961 I NVENTOR.

-bled into instruments without change thereafter.

United States Patent 3,183,760 REEDS FOR APPLICATION IN MUSICAL INSTRU- IVLENTS PARTlCULARLY IN ELECTRONEC Mildl- CAL INSTRUMENTS Adolf Michel, Dietrarnszellerstrasse 2, Munich 25, Germany Filed Nov. 7, 1961, Ser. No. 150,677 Claims priority, application Germany, Nov. 9, 1%h, M 47,076 2 Claims. (Cl. 84-408) Oscillating reeds have been used as tone sources in mechanical musical instruments for a long time, actually ranging widely in application from the mouth organ to mechanical pipe organs using reed pipes. Obviously this includes a great multitude of reed designs. In most instances no additional amplification is provided, and the dimensions and designs of the reeds are therefore chosen according to the desired sound level output.

Electronic musical instruments using reeds for signal current generation, on the other hand, differ in that the reeds as a rule are continuously oscillating, and the radiated acoustic output should be as low as possible. The reeds contemplated in this application are of the order of .05 mm. (.002) thick-one order of magnitude thinner than those used in mouth organs. For this reason the grinding technique ordinarily used to adjust the thickness of reeds for equal stiffness becomes almost impractical.

Furthermore, if such a reed is magnetically excited, a larger cross section becomes necessary at the point of excitation (usually at the point of maximum displacement of the reed) in order to better direct and control the mag netic flux. For this reason, any reduction of width at or near the point of magnetic field application (i.e., for tuning purposes for instance) is possible only under very limited conditions.

In the case of such very thin reeds, as described above, which are also very short for the same resonant frequencies, the resonant frequency depends even more critically than is usual upon the maintenance of the exact effective flexing length of the reed, which in turn relies on the stabilization of the first point of flexing of the reed. This creates a serious problem of reed tuning after the reeds have been installed, which is the usual practice.

The principal object of this invention is to provide easily manufactured pretuned reeds which can be assem- An exact stabilization of the first flexing point (the flexing point farthest from the free end), and thereby an exact definition of the active length of the reed when the reed is completed, is accomplished, according to this invention, prior to the time the reed is installed, by applying a crimp or deformation by a bending or stamping process Which can be easily controlled. This crimp is sufficiently displaced from the point of clamping the fixed end of the reed that the first flexing point no longer coincides with the clamping point, since a change in the moment of inertia and stiffness of the reed takes place abruptly at the juncture of the crimped portion with the uncrimped portion.

in the drawings, in which similar characters of reference refer to similar parts throughout the views.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation, in perspective, of a reed embodying the features of the present invention:

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side view of the reed mounted for use;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but showing a modified reed construction;

FIG. 4 shows the reed of PEG. 3 in use;

FIG. 5 is similar to FIGS. 1 and 3, but shows a still further modification; and

FIG. 6 is a side view of the reed of FIG. 5 mounted for use.

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In FIG. 1 of the drawings I have shown a reed which consists of a thin strip of suitable metal of uniform thickness. This reed is shown as being trimmed to generally rectangular form, with the free end being indicated at 10. Toward the opposite or base end of the reed, crimp lines 1?. are stamped into the metal so that the metal is sharply deformed so as to be creased longitudinally, with the forward end of the longitudinal crease curving outwardly toward each side so as to intersect the edges of the reed along the line a. When this reed is secured at its base, as indicated generally by the numeral 14 in FIG. 2, the greater stiffness of the base end will cause the free end 10 to vibrate along a bending transverse axis indi cated at a. Thus the base end may be clamped at any point rearwardly of the line a without affecting the oscillation frequency of the reed.

With this construction it will be apparent that the reed will vibrate only at the point determined by the crimping and that, if desired, it can be clamped in a fixture to check or slightly modify its frequency, after which it can be assembled into a musical instrument Without reference to any need for clamping the reed at any precise location at the base end.

Essentially the same arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 3, except that in this embodiment a pair of wings or tabs 16 are bent upwardly at the base end of the reed to define the line a along which the reed will flex. In the first embodiment (FIG. 1) it will be noted that the flexing line a is determined entirely by a change in stiffness of the reed, whereas in the embodiment of FIG. 3 both the stiffness and inertia per unit of length of the base portion is greater than in the free portion. In FIG. 4 the reed of FIG. 3 is shown mounted for use and, as with the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, flexure will take place from the line a forwardly to the free end, therefore making it uncritical as to just where the reed is clamped so long as the clamping occurs on the base portion.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 5 and 6, the features of the invention are accomplished by bending the base portions of the reed upwardly along the angles indicated by the lines I) so that, in plan, the base portion is essentially triangular. As with the arrangement of FIG. 1, this increases the stiffness of the base portion so that the reed will fiex along the line a and forwardly thereof without reference to the position at which the base is clamped. From the above it will be seen that reeds made according to this invention can be stamped out and pretuned so that when they are assembled in their final location, no additional tuning is necessary. In some types of musical instruments it is necessary to adjust the reed forwardly or backwardly in its final location for reasons other than tuning. In some types of instruments, for instance, the reeds are oscillated magnetically, and in such instruments it may be necessary to shift the position of the reed slightly in order to bring it into different relationships of adjacency to a magnetic pole piece. With the reed of the present invention, this adjustment is greatly facilitated, since it is not necessary to provide a separate adjustable base to which the reed is fastened, it being suitable to adjust the position of the reed itself in relation to whatever clamping arrangement is used.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A reed for use in a musical instrument comprising a thin fiat member of uniform thickness from end to end adapted to cooperate with a magnetic field in energy exchange relationship therewith, a deformation provided at a predetermined distance from one end of said reed for fixedly and exactly determining the point at which the In? reed will bend when vibrating While enabling the provision of a substantially constant area of cooperation between said field and reed for any one of a plurality of positions for said deformation, said deformation being offset from the plane of said reed, and having its longitudinal axial line extending parallel to the central axis of said reed and in a plane parallel to said reed.

'2. A vibratory reed that has been formed from a thin flat strip of resilient metal of uniform thickness and Width and of rectangular contour by deformation of one end portion thereof to render such portion rigid, the end portion having been bent by said deformation along a line extending longitudinally and centrally of the strip so as to limit thereby the length of the vibratory portion.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 321,882 7/85 Bramhall 84-363 2,641,950 6/53 West et a1. 84377 2,934,988 5/60 Miessner 84402 O LEYLAND M. MARTIN, Primary Examiner.

LAURENCE V. EFNER, ARNOLD RUEGG, LEG

SMILOW, Examiners. 

1. A REED FOR USE IN A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COMPRISING A THIN FLAT MEMBER OF UNIFORM THICKNESS FROM END TO END ADAPTED TO COOPERATE WITH A MAGNETIC FIELD IN ENERGY EXCHANGE RELATIONSHIP THEREWITH, A DEFORMATION PROVIDED AT A PREDETERMINED DISTANCE FROM ONE END OF SAID REED FOR FIXEDLY AND EXACTLY DETERMINING THE POINT AT WHICH THE REED WILL BEND WHEN VIBRATING WHILE ENABLING THE PROVISION OF A SUBSTANTIALLY CONSTANT AREA OF COOPERATION BETWEEN SAID FIELD AND REED FOR ANY ONE OF A PLURALITY OF POSITIONS FOR SAID DEFORMATION, SAID DEFORMATION BEING OFFSET FROM THE PLANE OF SAID REED, AND HAVING ITS LONGITUDINAL AXIAL LINE EXTENDING PARALLEL TO THE CENTRL AXIS OF SAID REED AND IN A PLANE PARALLEL TO SAID REED. 